MyRetailCareer

Not all Recruiters are Created Equal

I recently joined a fashion networking group and jumped into one of the discussions.  The person who started the discussion was asking about moving from retail store line to wholesale and why didn’t companies look at transferable skills.

I said that in my 7 years of recruiting I had found it difficult to move individuals  from retail to wholesale.  I was addressing this person’s specific situation (store line to corporate AND retail to wholesale).  I’ve placed buyers into account executive roles, moved planners, design, product development, sourcing, visual and so on back and forth; but to help someone in a situation like this as a recruiter was beyond my scope. As a career strategist, I can be much more helpful.

Another recruiter jumped into the conversation stating that they move people from retail to wholesale all the time, in fact, their clients ask for retailers.

A couple of thoughts went through my head.  “Wow this recruiter is really good.” and “Boy, this recruiter must have really interesting clients.”  I went with thought one first and did some research on the recruiter and their company and found the website. 

Every go to a fancy website that gives you absolutely no information?  After a few minutes on the site, I knew almost nothing about the company.  I didn’t know who the owner/s were, if it was private or public, the size, who the staff is; let alone any background information, or how long have they been in business. This recruiting company could have started yesterday (by the way, they didn’t, but I had to do some work to find that out).  With today’s web technology, it’s really easy to be the Wizard of Oz and have one person behind the scenes pulling all the levers and making a grand impression.

If you are going to work with a recruiter, go to their website and look for those things.  Most companies usually aren’t afraid to tell you who they are and how to contact them and they have an ABOUT page that actually tells you “about” them. They post their bios so you can tell if they are qualified and they tell you how long they have been in business and so forth. 

Keep in mind the company website might not be the recruiters fault.  I happen to know that this recruiter has 9 years experience and was a retail merchant before that (nothing is hidden if you dig deep enough). I leaned more about the company from the recruiter’s LinkedIn profile in 30 seconds than 5 minutes on the company site.

Remember, you don’t work with companies, you work with people.  It could be management that feels secrecy is the best policy or they could just have gotten bad advice about their website.

What’s important is to know who you’re trusting to represent you!  Keep your eyes open.  Research and ask for references.  Pry.  Does what they are saying make sense?  It’s your career and your livelihood.

I realize I got away from ‘transferable skills” my original topic but that’s now for another day.

The Rejuvenation Lounge » Meaningful Ways To Slow Yourself Down When Feeling Rushed:

I’ve either spoken to or been emailed by a number of stressed people today.  I guess it’s mid-week, not much has happened for them with their job-search and they are all feeling down.

When I was recruiting, I’d make a lot of phone calls.  The worse thing is that busy days weren’t the days you made the most calls.  They were the days you actually got people on the phone.  The tough days were the ones where you left 150 messages and spoke to no one.  

You could really get down after a day like that.  Rookies would let that get to them all the time.  I knew it was like sowing seeds in a field.  That the backbreaking work would result in a call back sometime in the future and I would get my harvest.  I also always knew that the next phone call could literally change my life.  It could be a top candidate for that tough position I was working on or a new client or a referral.  That is what kept me making calls.

I figure that most job seekers are rookies in they aren’t seeing any results from their efforts.  When it gets tough, you need to forge ahead.  You also need to stop, relax and evaluate what you’re doing and the results you’re getting.  I thought this holistic article had some great ideas.

The Rejuvenation Lounge » Meaningful Ways To Slow Yourself Down When Feeling Rushed:

If you are sending out resume after resume and not getting any response, there is something wrong, either with the resume or your strategy of who you are sending it to.  You can control both of those. 

I’m reviewing resumes for free and for the unemployed, I’m offering a Resume Rework and Career Strategy Kick-Start for a ridiculously cheap price. You have nothing to lose so call or email me.  My cell is 908-319-8653. 

Updating the Great Retail Map (I need a catchy name)!

I started working on this project and I'm hoping as I get the word out that others will jump on the band wagon and help out.  I'll be honest, I'm still learning how to use Google Maps and if anyone is an expert, please email me with a nice lesson and I'll post it here.

Here is the link to add to the map.

View Larger Map

Please feel free to invite others to contribute as well by either forwarding this or sending them the link. You can click on colaborate once you are in the map and enter email addresses as well.

Thanks!

Job Search and Technology; can you help?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”  It was in response to a job seeker who was living outside Podunk and was wondering if they should relocate to a different (better?) area.  One suggestion I had was to fly back and forth a couple of times and try to schedule extended layovers in other cities around interviews.

We’ll this person is about to go one further by packing up and driving across the USA.  The question to me was “what to do while driving across 6 states?”  So I got my thinking hat on and decided to play with Knoxville to LA.

Not too much along that route, Little Rock, home of Dillards (you can click on the map to look more closely).

Route #2 down through Dallas gives you JC Penny and later on, if one survives to Phoenix, PetSmart.   Yes, I know there are other retailers but I don’t know an easy way to find all of them along a chosen route. 

So I did what I always do, I Googled Corporate Retail Headquarters.  To be honest, not much came up.  My plan was to build a collaborative map on GoogleMaps, invite everyone I know to add to it and eventually have something that looks like this with a plethora of Corporate Retail locations.

I know that I can hunt and peck for them and add them one at a time but I’m looking for some help here to simplify the process. Meanwhile, if you would like to add your corporate headquarters location, the link is:

Brad's Corporate Google Map

I’ll keep everyone updated to the progress of this little project.

Finishing up with Resume #3

If you have been following along, you know that I’ve been giving my input on CDI’s (Career Directors International) competition winners for the best resumes of 2008.  If you missed that, here is a link to the MyRetailCareer blog that started with resume #1 and here is a link to the MyRetailCareer SkyDrive folder where I put copies of the resumes.

Like all resumes, #3 has good points and bad points.  I feel here that the bad points outweigh the good points.  What’s my beef?  It’s long and you have to read it.  I had to force myself and twice I put the resume down without finishing. 

I’m a big proponent of the “Platinum Rule” and if you haven’t read it, you should.  While the Golden Rule says, “Treat others like you would like to be treated,” the Platinum Rule says, “Treat others how they would like to be treated.”  When sending out resumes you have to consider who it’s going to received by.

If someone is getting 300+ resumes a week because they have 5 jobs posted on Monster or CareerBuilder, the chances of them reading  this resume are slim.  No matter how much good stuff is buried in it.

The resume starts off with this.

The four bullet points, at that “point of white heat” don’t really say much.  I don’t really know what they actually mean.  “Consummate Membership Services Directions” are what, directions on how to get to the front desk delivered by a butler?  I think I understand what they are trying to communicate but say what you mean.  Isn’t this trying to communicate that the manager has focused on customer service, creative marketing, team development and sales training to improve sales and profitability?

It’s also sounds like it was written with a thesaurus in one hand, which can contribute to wordiness. My Freshman year college English Professor once gave me an F on a one-page paper for using the word “very” as in “very important.”  He wrote on the side, “It’s either important or it’s not, there is no reason to use two words when one will suffice.”

I like that this writer pulled a lot of skills out and backed most of them up with numbers.  Once more I’d like the numbers to have both percentages and numbers attached and less “fluffy” words that just take up space.

• Branding: Re-enrolled 55 prior clients (20% of total lost clients) by effectively communicating our new identity and business plans.

This one kills me because there is so much “good stuff” here and after I read the 4 different percentages my head hurts.

• Team Development: Provided strong emphasis on selling excellence and sales metrics resulted in:
• Sales closing rate of 50% from initial phone call to on-site visit (Company average is 30%).
• Up-selling efforts resulted in 40% of new clients being converted to “platinum membership” and increased member fees 60%, $100K annually.

I  like the Snapshot boxes on the right side of the resume, they answer a lot of questions.  I think this resume, of all three, has the most going on but you have to dig for it and I’m concerned that many screeners will give up before finding the pot of gold. 

I hope that this exercise  encourages all of you to pull out your resume and compare it to all 3 of these.  There is no right or wrong way here.  I base my opinions and thoughts on having been a 3rd party recruiter for 7 years.  I worked on multiple and diverse positions at the same time while also reviewing hundreds of unsolicited resumes each week.  I appreciated resumes that got “to the point” were easy to review and quickly identified the candidate’s individuals skills and accomplishments.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Today we Look at Resume # 2

Yesterday we looked at resume # 1 of 3 from the recent CDI (Career Directors International) Best Resumes of 2008.  If you missed that, here is yesterday’s MyRetailCareer blog link. Today we dive into Resume # 2.

Right off the bat, you will see that while this has a more traditional feel, the resume has some nice touches. Having 2 pages also allows some freedom.

I like the ‘willing to relocate” over the address on page 1.  I also like that it changed on page 2 to Senior Sales Manager.  These are nice touches. 

 catches your eye and quickly tells you what this person is.  

I think the paragraph under that could be stronger.  Being the “point of white heat” it doesn’t reach out and grab me.  I don’t think that a lot of people still read, most tend to skim and I might suggest some key emphasis points there.  I do like that “Weight Loss Centers” have been repositioned as “Health and Fitness Facilities.” 

I didn’t mention this yesterday because the resume was one page and there was no extra room but I like when the resume tells about the company.  It’s been stated that over 60% of recruiters will research the  candidate or company online.  When I Googled Weight Loss International, well, just click and look yourself.  Now I’m wondering, is this the same company and if it is, why no mention of it’s centers?  Did it change hands during the “abrupt closure” or what?  Try not to raise questions in your resume rather answer them.

I like the “call-out boxes” on the side.  This one gives me some additional information pointing out that the candidate managed a staff of 3.  I might have worded it stronger by including how much profits were impacted.

I also like seeing months and years on a resume because the other way can be construed as an attempt to hide time spent.  1998 to 2000 can be nearly 3 full years as in 1/98 to 12/00 or barely 14 months, 12/98 to 1/00.

With more space, this resume can add more numbers, I see $220 and $100,000 included, I’d like to see even more. 

It’s evident to me that the focus here is Sales Management and Customer Service and I’d make more of an effort to bring that up earlier near the top of the resume.  Notice that transferability of skills wasn’t really touched upon in this resume like it was yesterday. 

One phrase sets my hair on fire, “due to extended absences of the previous center manager.” 

It’s a petty phrase and to me, all it means is that business should get better if they hire any manager that shows up.  ‘Hired to restore and invigorate a poorly performing wellness facility facing declining revenue and increasing staff turnover” makes a nicer statement.

This resume was voted #1 by the general group of voters and the resume we looked at yesterday was voted #1 by the expert group of voters.  I think there is a lot to learn from both of them and quite a few touches that will make a resume “jump” out from the stack.  Tomorrow, #3.

3 Resumes for Review

Yesterday, I received a newsletter from CDI (Career Directors International) announcing their 3 winning resumes for 2008.  These were voted on by both a group of resume experts and the general public.  While the order changed slightly between the experts and the public, the top 3 were in both groups.

I don’t normally look at resumes like this because I happen to feel they are written to win competitions, not necessarily to get jobs but since the resumes focus on a retail individual I thought I’d share them.

I’ve made the 3 resumes available in my SkyDrive Folder for you to look at.  I also wrote yesterday about a book, “197 Words that can Kill a Resume.”  While looking at these resumes, keep that book in mind.

Who’s right here?  I don’t have an answer to that question.  They are all nice looking and resume #1 is certainly unique for a 1 page document. I’m going to take the rest of the week to give you my thoughts on each, starting with #1.  I don’t know what information the resume writer was provided to work with so my comments are not aimed at the writer. I’m looking at this from a 3rd party prospective.

I like the top, right away it tells me about the candidate and what they are looking for.  I don’t like “Change Agent” for two reasons; it’s 2 words and Competitive and Analytical are each single words and it’s an over-used cliché.  I would have maybe used innovative instead (yes, just as overused but it’s one word).

I like this block, it’s at the “point of white heat” as I say, right where you eye goes first.  However, it talks specifically about “Weight Loss Centers” and as I read a little further down, I see “Transferable Skills.”  Now I have a question in my mind, does this candidate want to move out of managing Weight Loss Clinics or not?  I might get an answer in the cover letter or an interview but what if the cover letter gets separated from the resume or since I’m not recruiting for a Weight Loss Center, I pass on this candidate?

The first sentence is nice, right up to the “Weight Loss Centers” being mentioned again.  Does she want to transition?  How about “Specialty Retail” then?  Sentence two leaves me scratching my head, I have no idea what that sentence means. It’s fluff.

Since this is a 1-page resume, this section is where the rubber meets the road and I don’t think it is strong enough.  Also this is where I believe the attempt is being made to define the individuals skills as transferable (being the sharp-eyed person I am, the phrase “Proof of transferable skills…” gave it away to me).

Some of the wording is excessive and cliché like Mission-Critical, Human Capital, Broken Processes.  Some of the accomplishments are linked to specific positions/companies and some are not.  Let’s be consistent there.  Percentages are used throughout and that causes a problem.  You can’t quantify the level of difficulty of the position.  If they lost 10 members and regained 2 for the 20%, I’m underwhelmed, if they lost 100 and gained back 20, I’ll take notice. If the inventory shrinkage of over 10 % points saved $100 big deal, if it saved $10K, it’s respectable.

The other concern, which I have mentioned before, is the purpose of this resume.  It really overemphasizes an area that is specific to “Membership” type operations.  Weight Loss Centers, Fitness Centers, Video Stores (the few that remain), and so on.  If the goal is to indicate transferability of skills so that this person can be appealing to more traditional specialty retail operations, it falls short.  Then the graph, which I actually like, once more reinforces the “Membership Retention” message. 

Membership Retention is not the key driving point for most retail sales manager positions.  I’d talk about staff size and turnover, sales and margin improvement, training, promotion, etc.  I like the special events mention and would present that as community outreach to improve brand recognition.

I’d take the candidates accomplishments and ask “how do we make these appealing to a mainstream specialty retailer? What is going to make them sit up and notice you?”  I’d ensure that the candidate could address those questions in an interview with drop-dead answers

I like the layout, it’s interesting and made me take notice.  For a position with any company that has a similar business model, it certainly would be fine.  I would however, work on the wording to make it more straight-forward.

As a resume to demonstrate transferable skills, it falls short.  It’s possible that the resume writer and the individual don’t have enough industry knowledge of main-stream specialty retail, that I don’t know.

Tomorrow, resume #2

03/06/2009 - 197 words that can kill a resume (and the HR person reading it) - STLtoday.com

If you pick anything up from this article, I hope it’s the idea that you should use simple, common, easy to understand English in your resume (assuming  your resume should be written in English). 

I have written about it before and I’ll most likely write about it again (next blog I promise).  Use the KISS theory.

One of the biggest mistakes is throwing in all the industry jargon, as evidenced by the PMS remark in the article.  One commenter on the article feels that “deliverables” shouldn’t be included in the 197 bad words because, in their words, “we use it all the time in our industry.”

That’s great until your resume ends up the the hands of someone not from or familiar with your industry.  HR in particular moves across industries quite easily.  The new recruiter, Bob or Sally, who just joined your “to die for” retailer, might have come out of a CPG company (oh sorry, consumer packaged goods or a church pension group).   They might not be familiar with industry terms.  Why take the chance.  POS takes up 3 spaces, Point of Sale only adds 10 more (it also means personal operating space in the tech world).  Find a better place to cut and make your resume easy to understand or you could neglect to effectively enumerate your actualization of organizational prerogatives. 

 

03/06/2009 - 197 words that can kill a resume (and the HR person reading it) - STLtoday.com

And the Survey Says.....

I hate to admit it but I was a closet Family Feud watcher.  I liked Richard Dawson from Hogan’s Heroes and I guess I though it pretty cool that he could go from a WWII POW Camp to Game Show Host.  Talk about a career change.

I started a group 2 weeks ago on LinkedIn, the MyRetailCareer group.  We have over 300 members already and I put together a short survey on SurveyMonkey just to see why people had joined and how they were using it.  Today I reviewed the results.  I didn’t have a large number of responses so I make no claim to statistical accuracy but I’ll bet a buck that even if 200 members would have responded, the results would be pretty similar.

Question 1; Why did you join this group? (multiple answers were allowed).

58% joined to find a job and 83% joined to network. 

Question 2; Have you contacted anyone in this group?

Only 17% said yes.

Point Number One…..If you joined to find a job, meet people or both, why have less 1 in 5 of you reached out to someone?

Finding a job requires networking and networking requires networking.  Hint to members, reach out to each other.  Say this over and over “It’s not who I know, it’s who they know.”

Questions 3, 4 & 5; About discussions, news and jobs.

83% have viewed the discussions and 100% have viewed the news and jobs sections of the group.

8% have commented on a discussion, 11% used the news, and 12% used the jobs sections.

Point Number Two….. If you learn one thing today about social networking, it’s you have to contribute to get noticed.  As Captain Picard says on Star Trek, “ENGAGE.”

Start a discussion.  If you know about a job, add it to the group, someone might benefit.  Did you read a news article on career, interviewing, resumes, retail news or anything useful.  It so simple to add it to the group for everyone’s benefit. 

Question 6; Have you invited your contacts to join?

92% have not.

Point Number Three….If you don’t share, why should you expect anyone to ever think of you or go out of their way to help you?

I writing about this even though some readers may not be on LinkedIn (shame on you) or joined any LinkedIn groups (double shame).  I’ll also bet you that these percentages are pretty common even across groups.  People are afraid to get out of the box, step over the lines, break the rules, reach out to a stranger.

If you remember Family Feud, there were the Top 5 answers.  Today, the question is, “What did I learn from reading this?”  I’ll give you what I think the top 5 are tomorrow.

  

PS if you want to join the MyRetailCareer LinkedIn Group, click the link below.

http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=1807340

Goal For It - Profile - battig1

You might remember that a few weeks back I wrote about setting goals.  I mentioned I was going to try a new online program, GoalForIt.com.  We’ll I signed up, entered one goal, with a few steps.  We’ll I’m 25% there, to a goal I committed to finishing by the EOM Feb. 

It’s not Goal For It’s fault.  They continue to send me weekly emails to prod me along (they get deleted with some guilt) and I go along my merry way.  But this was an important goal and I fell behind.

Never mind that I remind my clients that truly successful people tend to be big goal setters.  Never mind I have a multi page guide to goal setting that I give out. 

So what can I do?  I can beat myself up,call myself a failure or a loser or both.  I can say, “Who cares?”  I must, I took the time to think about it.  Or, I can follow my own advice and evaluate why I didn’t achieve the goal, make some adjustments and set some new timelines.

Ultimately, it’s about making it to the finish line.  So I didn’t run my best race.  Finishing, even late, beats the alternative which is quitting.  I know where I went wrong and I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks if I fixed anything.

Goal For It - Profile - battig1